April 2005 Archives

No really, I'm not kidding here. If this becomes law, a surcharge as much as €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte will come into place on mp3 players. This might put €180 ($235) to the price of a top end iPod.

Does this mean that when I buy an iPod, I am allowed to download any music I want on it? Without ever paying again for music? Because otherwise I would be paying twice for copyright! I guess not.

I think this is illegal. And the EU should prevent the Dutch government implementing this. But they probably won't. I'll vote NOOOOOO! on june first anyway.

The Kentucky Consular Center has began to sent out the DV-2006 notification letters to winners in Australia. And this time it's not a joke. Every year Australians seem to be the first to receive the letters. In the past the first European winners where notified about two weeks later. Letters will be sent all the way through June. So, between now and the end of June, Sweety and I will be closely monitoring our mailbox. Waiting for that big brown envelope, notifying us we've won!

p.s. the batteries of the digital camera are fully loaded, there's space on the memory, so we'll post a picture as soon as we get the letter :)

Happy Dutch-American Friendship Day!

Did you know The Netherlands is the United States' longest unbroken, peaceful relationship with any foreign country. The Netherlands was also the first foreign nation to salute the American flag o­n November 16, 1776.

Last week I had a dream where in I received a letter from the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC). They send out the notifications to Diversity Lottery winners every year. I don’t dream that often, and this one felt really real. What a great feeling it was! The envelope was smaller than the ones sent out in real life, and it was white instead of brown. But still.

Martin from Matosh told me his wife had a similair dream a few months before they received a winning notification in real life. They moved to the US last December.

I hope this dream will come true for us to.

A Dutch court will rule 29 April if Dutch authorities should arrest US president Bush during his visit to The Netherlands in May. The ruling is asked by a group of local politicians and individuals. They want him arrested for violations of the Geneva conventions. Bush will be visiting, if he doesn’t cancel, May 7-8 to commemorate Victory in Europe Day and visit the American cemetery in the Dutch city of Margraten. I they do arrest him, there's already a plan for his rescue: "Hague Invasion Act". Boy, I am happy we have our own escape plan!

A year older, and wiser? Well, I’m 29 now. Just 52 weeks before the big 30. Just 12 months before I definitely say goodbye to my twenties. A weird sense of urgency is creeping in. Almost 30 and not married, no children, no bachelor degree and still living in the city I was born in. Time for change. And something tells me things are about to change the coming year. So stay tuned :)

Yesterday I went to a free USA Work Visa Workshop in Amsterdam organized by Law Offices of Richard A. Wilde. It was kinda interesting, though I didn’t hear a lot of new things. There was a special guest speaker from the US Consulate in Amsterdam. This was nice because she actually decides on Visa requests. So it was a great opportunity to ask some questions.

The conclusion after an hour of information is not new. The best way to emigrate to the US for Sweety and me is winning the Diversity Lottery. Last year more than 110 Dutch received a greencard through this. Second best is through employment but Visas for that are gone for this year and it is hard to find a company that will sponsor you.

Although the KCC officially says it informs winners of the Diversity Lottery between May and June, some people receive their letter before May every year. Sometimes as early as March. I’ve already heard of people receiving a letter, informing them they won the DV2006, in Asia and Australia.

Today someone at a Dutch forum posted a message that he had received confirmation of winning. I’m not sure yet if it is true or an April fools joke, but I think it can be true. This means that it’s a very exciting time for Sweety and me. Not only because our Government might fall (again!) but more importantly: if one of us wins the Lottery we should receive a letter between now and June, and wheter they fall or not, it won’t be our Government any more before too long :)

UPDATE: It was a joke....

Since the contest at Hello World It’s Me ended I can tell you that we are going to Rome!

We decided not to go to the US, as we had planned earlier. This wasn’t an easy decision because we love the States and it would be a great opportunity to visit Zandria before she moves to the West coast. But then again, what if we win the Lottery? We’d move to the US within a year maybe, and visiting Europe from the US isn’t as easy and cheap anymore as it is now. But it will be much easier to visit Zandria!

So we decided to do some EU cities while we still live on the same continent :)